Physician Assistant

U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs; Little Rock (AR); On-site; USD 93,000 - 177,000; Full time

Job summary

Department of Veterans Affairs seeks a Physician Assistant to provide overnight medical management for admitted and residential patients across North Little Rock and Little Rock campuses. The PA will deliver independent clinical service, education, and coordination within the Medicine Service to advance Veterans Affairs missions.

The role includes after-hours medical oversight, urgent care decisions, and collaboration with nursing, EMS, and specialty services.

Responsibilities

• Independently manages a panel of patients with acute and chronic health conditions.
• Orders and interprets labs, tests, and diagnostic studies.
• Prescribes pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions.
• Provides after-hours medical oversight and serves as the primary medical decision maker for urgent issues.
• Responds to code blue events as code team leader and coordinates resuscitative care.

Skills

Patient care

Clinical decision making

Emergency response

Interdisciplinary coordination

Job description

• Department: Department of Veterans Affairs

The Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System (CAVHS) Physician Assistant practices within the Medicine Service to provide a full range of services emphasizing quality, timeliness, and the advancement of the Veterans Affairs mission. The PA provides advanced clinical practice, consultation, and management.

Key Responsibilities

The Physician Assistant provides independent overnight medical management for all admitted and residential patients at North Little Rock (NLR) and /or Little Rock campus, including but not limited to acute rehab, subacute rehab, dementia unit, geriatric psychiatry, acute psychiatry, residential rehabilitation, domiciliary, and Community Living Center in NLR and Inpatient services at JLM.

Duties include but are not limited to: Independently manages a panel of patients with acute and chronic health conditions with an emphasis on health promotion and disease prevention using evidence-based practice. Develops and implements an individualized plan to achieve optimal population health and disease management. Orders and interprets labs, tests, and diagnostic studies. Prescribes pharmacologic and non-pharmacologic interventions.

Initiates referrals and consults to specialty services. Provides education to patients and their families. Assesses and adjusts the plan of care as needed to achieve optimal patient outcomes. Provide NLR facility wide medical oversight after hours, serving as the primary medical decision maker for urgent and emergent issues across inpatient, residential, and designated outpatient areas.

Promptly respond to requests from nursing staff for evaluation and treatment of patient care concerns, including reviewing electronic medical records, in-person assessment of patients, entry appropriate orders and documentation, and closed loop communication with nursing staff. Promptly respond to all code blue events. In NLR serve as the code team leader. coordinate resuscitative care; direct team roles; and collaborate with NOD on EMS activation and transfers.

Collaborate with NOD to resolve any escalated issues involving nursing staff or patient care, and to arrange transportation to Emergency Department (ED) for patients that require work-up or stabilization beyond NLR facility capabilities. Understand limitations of evaluation and management at NLR after hours and how to expeditiously arrange for transport of appropriate patients to ED. Provide warm handoff to providers on patients transferring to ED and MICU.

Provide call coverage of other VHA policy mandated duties including but not limited to handling of after-hours critical lab values for patients. Provide call coverage for VHA mandated duties, including follow up on critical after-hours laboratory values for clinic or inpatient Veterans.

Evaluate patients that wish to discharge for safety of their discharge plan, and facilitate plan for those patients with capacity to include medication fills and discharge summary with alert to primary team. Patients that lack capacity may be held either by surrogate decision maker authorization or by 72 hour hold per VHA policy, in which case provider facilitates implementing these holds per VHA policy.

Perform history & physicals and write admission orders as needed for patients admitting to services where after hours admissions are permitted. Rapidly evaluate all reported falls and document accordingly as per VHA fall policy. Provide admission-related orders where orders have been lost due to user error or system limitation. Meaningfully participate in Joint Patient Safety Review reporting processes, Peer Review reporting processes and Root Cause Analysis as appropriate.

Participate in facility peer review process, OPPE review process, and other assigned chart review processes. Duties may require extended periods of walking, standing, bending, lifting/carrying light items, donning PPE, and rapid mobility during emergent responses. Each Physician Assistant Scope Of Practice is determined at the individual practice level using the VHA Directive 1063, Utilization of Physician Assistants. VA offers a comprehensive total rewards package.

Work Schedule: 7 days on / 7 days off. Wednesday - Monday, 7:00pm to 7:00am, and Tuesday, 11:00pm -7:00am. Schedule subject to change based on the needs of the service. Compressed/Flexible: Available Telework: Not Available Virtual: This is not a virtual position. Relocation/Recruitment Incentives: Not Authorized Permanent Change of Station (PCS): Not Authorized PCS Appraised Value Offer (AVO): Not Authorized

Requirements & Education

Note: Only education or degrees recognized by the U.S. Department of Education from accredited colleges, universities, schools, or institutions may be used to qualify for Federal employment. You can verify your education here: http://ope.ed.gov/accreditation/. If you are using foreign education to meet qualification requirements, you must send a Certificate of Foreign Equivalency with your transcript in order to receive credit for that education.

For further information, visit: https://sites.ed.gov/international/recognition-of-foreign-qualifications/.

Which agency is hiring for this position?

This position is with Veterans Health Administration, Department of Veterans Affairs.

What is the salary for this position?

The posted pay range is $93107 - $176824/yr.

What is the application deadline?

Applications close on 2026-10-30.

Who is eligible to apply?

This position is open under the 'Fed Internal Search' hiring path.